This is a bit of a tangent, but does "bringing in 'real' programmers" to clean up the mess really work? In my 1-2 years of experience (which isn't much), it seems like time onboarding into a big system (like Twitter) can take months, even for the all-stars. Is "we'll bring in the cavalry when shit hits the fan" a workable mindset for a startup?

(And this isn't trying to be glib, I'm genuinely curious -- I only have experience at a huge place that has tons of process for transfers and such).